In animal husbandry, it is frequently necessary to treat the livestock as by medication and the like for the obvious benefits associated therewith. In addition, it is also desired to dehorn the animals so as to reduce the likelihood of injury to a livestock owner's precious commodities. In this regard, various methods have been proposed in the past for constraining and restraining the head of an animal and the prior art of which applicant is aware comprises the following patents.
Roark U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,073 PA1 Koon U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,399 PA1 Sanders U.S. Pat. No. 2,595,302 PA1 Marmet U.S. Pat. No. 2,313,833 PA1 Baker U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,890 PA1 Westervelt et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,343
Of these patents, the patent to Roark provides a teaching for constraining the neck of an animal for secure engagement, and although it is clear that the head of the animal is constrained relative to motion in and out of the head gate, rotation of the head cannot be controlled with the device as taught in this patent.
Similarly, the patent to Koon while restricting the head of the animal from axial movement along the length of the spine of the animal, the relative rotation of the head, is not controlled in this patent.
The patent to Sanders teaches the use of an animal restraining device in which a collar is placed on the animal to deter the animal from turning back on itself to prevent self nursing. Clearly, this neither constrains the animal from axial movement along the length of the spine of the animal, nor does it deter rotation of the head.
The remaining references appear to diverge even further from that which the instant application teaches, said teaching being adequately summarized by noting that an animal whose head frequently extends between the rails of a confinement pen in order to feed itself is provided with plural vertical rails through which the head is allowed to pass, these rails being laterally translatable so as to constrain the head from withdrawal between the rails and thereafter the device according to the present invention is applied so that the head of the livestock is constrained between the rails and against the cattle head holder according to the present invention so that various operations, such as medicating, dehorning and the like can be most expeditiously effected.